The 2015 Midland Short Course Championships took place in Nottingham, England last weekend, where teams across both the ASA East Midland and ASA West Midland competed in a bragging rights battle. Swimmers aged 11 to 17+ competed at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village on November 7th and 8th, resulting in several swimmers collecting multiple pieces of hardware before the meet was through.

2014 Commonwealth Games 200m breaststroke bronze medalist Molly Renshaw from Loughborough, came home with a small treasure of medals, highlighted by her 2:21.28 200m breaststroke victory. That time just missed the English national record by .11, but now places her at the top of the SCM world rankings in the event.

Renshaw also snagged gold in the women’s 200m IM event, touching in a lifetime best of 2:11.67, as well as the 100m breaststroke in 1:06.53.

Renshaw’s teammate, Emma Day, scored the win in the women’s 400m IM, registering a lifetime best of 4:41.86, a time which ranks Day among Loughborough’s All-Time Top 5 rankings. Another Loughborough swimmer, Sophie Smith, raced her way to both the 100m and 200m freestyle titles, finishing in times of 54.68 and 1:57.07, respectively.

At just 15 years old, Ellesmere’s Tazmin Pugh made quite a mark on the meet, swimming away with 4 individual titles. Pugh swept the butterfly events, taking home the gold in the 50m in a time of 27.10, the 100m in a time of 1:00.25, and the 200m in a time of 2:10.48.

Pugh’s time in the 200m butterfly now positions her as 2nd-fastest in the world this year.

The youngster also clocked the swiftest time in the women’s 200m backstroke, beating the field in a mark of 2:08.54 for the gold.

On the men’s side, Derby’s Braddan Westlake was a double-winner, earning victories in the 200m IM (2:00.41), as well as the 200m freestyle (1:47.26). Loughborough’s Kevin Wallbank nabbed two butterfly event wins, touching first in the 100m race in a time of 54.22 and the 200m race in a time of 2:00.53.

Loughborough swept the men’s 50m butterfly, as the trio of Kane Haggett (24.84), Alasdair Wright (24.94) and Wallbank (25.16) got the job done. The Loughborough squad also earned gold across the 3 backstroke events as a team, led by Brian O’Sullivan in the 50m, (25.87) and Dan Cross, who roped in two wins with his 55.54 100m backstroke and 1:58.84 200m backstroke. James Wilby, a World University Games silver medalists, won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events in times of 1:00.74 and 2:14.57, respectively.

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About Loretta Race

After 16 years at a Fortune 1000 financial company, long-time swimmer Retta Race decided to change lanes and pursue her sporting passion. She currently is Coach for the Northern KY Swordfish Masters, a team she started up in December 2013, while also offering private coaching. Retta is also an MBA …